“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors?” – Thomas Jefferson (1781)
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First Principles: It Is Error Alone Which Needs the Support of Government. Truth Can Stand By Itself
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Coercision, Error, First Pricniiples, Government, Inquisitors, Opinion, Support, Thomas Jefferson, Truth
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Thought For the Day: Those Who Profess To Favor Freedom and Yet Depreciate Agitation, Are People Who Want Crops Without Ploughing the Ground
“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.” – Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
First Principles: They Define A Republic To Be A Government of Laws, and Not of Men
“They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men.” – John Adams (1775)
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Tagged Define, First Principles, Government, John Adams, Laws, Men, Novanglis, Republic
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Thought For the Day: Above All, Every Member of the University Has An Obligation To Permit Free Expression In the University
“Above all, every member of the university has an obligation to permit free expression in the university. No member has a right to prevent such expression. Every official of the university, moreover, has a special obligation to foster free expression and to ensure that it is not obstructed.” -Historian C. Van Woodward (1908-1999)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged C. Van Woodward, Ensure, Every Member, Expression, Free Expression, Obligation, Obstruct, Right, Thought For the Day, University
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First Principles: The Army (Considering the Irritable State It Is In, Its Suffering and Composition) Is A Dangerous Instrument To Play With
“The Army (considering the irritable state it is in, its suffering and composition) is a dangerous instrument to play with.” – George Washington (1783)
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Tagged Army, Composition, Dangerous Instrument, First Principles, George Washington, Irritable State, Play, Suffer
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Jack’s Winter Glory
Jack's Winter Glory
by Michael Doyle
Once upon a winter's snowflake
There was a Christmas wish to make
There in that distant time and place
There was magic for all to embrace
As tyranny suppressed simple peasants
Until they could not afford Christmas presents
The czar took every fraction of every penny
Each coin was seized from those who once had plenty
It was there on the late fall's chilled breeze
That there was a sound that would please
Announcing Jack Frost would soon come to arrive
Bringing his joy to all who managed to survive
With a tinkle of bells and a magical sound
Jack began leaving traces of his love on the ground
Ice frozen in place in overflowing fountains
To be sliced into ice coins, spent between the mountains
There in the countryside dusted in white flowing snow
It brought its own smiles for all to live and know
Painted like a wonderland of richest imagination
Sometimes that's the only joy in a downtrodden nation
Love it seems can bring the best blend of daydreams
As Christmas approaches stitched up between the seams
It's in these worst of times that magic is most needed
It warms the heart of the young and should be heeded
As wonderful as it is to play within one's mind
It can still be lonely in the being of one of a kind
This is the worst of the truth of Jack Frost's story
With the snowstorms come winter's truest glory
(c) December 16, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Arrive, Bells, Between the Mountains, Breeze, Christmas Wish, Countryside, Czar, Daydreams, Fountains, Fraction, Ground, Jack Frost, Magic, Mind, Nation, One of A Kind, Peasant, Please, Plenty, Poetry and Poems, Presents, Seams, Smiles, Snow, Snowflake, Snowstorms, Survive, Time and Place, Truth, Warm, Winter Glory, Wonderland, Worst of Times
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Thought For the Day: Crime Is Contagious. If the Government Becomes A Law Breaker, It Breeds Contempt For the Law
“Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for the law.” – Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Breed, Contagious, Contempt, Crime, Government, Justice Louis D. Brandei, Law, Law Breaker, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: I Place Economy Among the First and Most Important of Republican Virtues, and Public Debt As the Greatest of the Dangers To Be Feared
“I … place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” – Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Plumer, 1816
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Tagged Dangers, Economy, Fear, First, First Principles, Great, Most Important, Public Debt, Republican Virtues, Thomas Jefferson
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In the Focus and Calm (Are Moments of Truth)
In the Focus and Calm (Are Moments of Truth)
by Michael Doyle
There in the focus and calm
Is a remembrance of who you are
It comes back like a twist of balm
That you reach for, no matter how far
Once this fortress has been breached
And the strength of fortitude has been reached
You are taught who to pretend to be
In this conspiracy of illusions that passes for reality
Mirror, mirror on that jaded, faded wall
Who then is really in control of this all
Alone and outnumbered, we make our stands
We are born to bring this crashing down to the last man
It is where we are going and where we are from
The questions that ring that leave us feeling numb
Each of us is searching for a place we can call home
Somewhere outside the cage of this thunder's dome
Someone lies that help is surely on the way
But when it comes down to it, it's up to us to save the day
The city's desperation flows across graffiti walls
Where somewhere beyond the loneliness, courage still calls
(c) December 15, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Balm, Breach, Cage, Calm, Conspsiracy, Control, Courage, Crashing Down, Far, Focus, Fortitude, Grafitti, Help, Home, Jaded, Moments of Truth, Poetry and Poems, Pretend, Questions, Remebrance, Sand, Save
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Thought For the Day: Unrestrained Political Authority, Thought It Be Confided To Masses, Cannot Be Trusted Without Positive Limitations
“Unrestrained political authority, though it be confided to masses, cannot be trusted without positive limitations, men in bodies being but an aggregation of the passions, weaknesses and interests of men as individuals.” – American writer James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851
